om.]

ACT SECOND.

[The same room. The mist still lies heavy over the landscape.]

[MANDERS and MRS. ALVING enter from the dining-room.]

MRS. ALVING. [Still in the doorway.] _Velbekomme_ [Note: A phrase
equivalent to the German _Prosit die Mahlzeit_--May good digestion wait
on appetite.], Mr. Manders. [Turns back towards the dining-room.] Aren't
you coming too, Oswald?

OSWALD. [From within.] No, thank you. I think I shall go out a little.

MRS. ALVING. Yes, do. The weather seems a little brighter now. [She
shuts the dining-room door, goes to the hall door, and calls:] Regina!

REGINA. [Outside.] Yes, Mrs. Alving?

MRS. ALVING. Go down to the laundry, and help with the garlands.

REGINA. Yes, Mrs. Alving.

[MRS. ALVING assures herself that REGINA goes; then shuts the door.]

MANDERS. I suppose he cannot overhear us in there?

MRS. ALVING. Not when the door is shut. Besides, he's just going out.

MANDERS. I am still quite upset. I don't know how I could swallow a
morsel of dinner.

MRS. ALVING. [Controlling her nervousness, walks up and down.] Nor I.
But what is to be done now?

MANDERS. Yes; what is to be done? I am really quite at a loss. I am so
utterly without experience in matters of this sort.

MRS. ALVING. I feel sure that, so far, no mischief has been done.

MANDERS. No; heaven forbid! But it is an unseemly state of things,
nevertheless.

MRS. ALVING. It is only an idle fancy on Oswald's part; you may be sure
of that.

MANDERS. Well, as I say, I am not accustomed to affairs of the kind. But
I should certainly think--

MRS. ALVING. Out of the house she must go, and that immediately. That is
as clear as daylight--

MANDERS. Yes, of course she must.

MRS. ALVING. But where to? It would not be right to--

MANDERS. Where to? Home to her father, of course.

MRS. ALVING. To whom did you say?

MANDERS. To her--But then, Engstrand is not--? Good God, Mrs. Alving,
it's impossible! You must be mistaken after all.

MRS. ALVING. Unfortunately there is no possibility of mistake. Johanna
confessed everything to me; and Alving could not deny it. So there was
nothing to be done but to get the matter hushed up.

MANDERS. No, you could do nothing else.

MRS. ALVING. The girl left our service at once, and got a good sum of
money to hold her tongue for the time. The rest she managed for herself
when she got to town. She renewed her old acquaintance with Engstrand,
no doubt let him see that s